Sky is 20..

**Stuart** · 05-02-2009, 15:54

Yep, 20 years ago today, Rupert Murdoch launched a service that whether you like it or not, you have to admit, changed Television..

Sky is 20

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7860562.stm

hedgie · 05-02-2009, 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Yep, 20 years ago today, Rupert Murdoch launched a service that whether you like it or not, you have to admit, changed Television..

Sky is 20

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7860562.stm

Must say I think the overall impact has been negative. Silly money for sports seems to have had a knock on effect of the rich getting richer and content kept off other distribution platforms. Just my two pence worth.......

NoKnowledge · 05-02-2009, 16:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Yep, 20 years ago today, Rupert Murdoch launched a service that whether you like it or not, you have to admit, changed Television..

Sky is 20

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7860562.stm

How very true

m419 · 08-02-2009, 18:34

Hmmmm, Wasnt it the Cable companies that attracted people to the pay-tv market??? As I rightly remember Sky Analogue was terrible, when you changed the channel it would say 'please wait channel loading' and would take ages sometimes!

Cable TV was the one that did all the work! Without the Cable companies, Sky wouldnt exist! Most people subscribed to Cable in the 90's and meant that Sky depended on the Cable companies to carry Sky channels for advertising revenue. Without cable, they would have been stuck with fewer than 500,000 customers.

Also, in 1993, Sky no longer offered a free service, Sky channels were made part of subscription package otherwise you would have had to have a Cable subscription.

So it was the Cable companies that have helped Sky.

Sky caused a lot of havoc in 2007 when they removed Sky channels from Freeview and Virgin TV but lost so much advertising revenue and returned the channels.

Central · 08-02-2009, 20:42

They removed nothing from Freeview

broadbandking · 08-02-2009, 21:27

WOW 20 years that's impressive

beeman · 08-02-2009, 23:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by m419

As I rightly remember Sky Analogue was terrible, when you changed the channel it would say 'please wait channel loading' and would take ages sometimes!

That depended on the STB you chose (remember back in the day you brough the stb yourself) if you chose a cheep box then yes that would happen, if you payed for an expensive one then channel changes were instintainous (infact the old analoge service was way faster then VM's current STB offerings :/)

**Graham M** · 09-02-2009, 00:39

Happy Birthday Sky, thanks for Sky+

m419 · 10-02-2009, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Central

They removed nothing from Freeview

Wasnt Sky News,Sky Three,Sky Sports news removed from the line up, well they did on my freeview box!

**Maggy J** · 10-02-2009, 16:40

I hope this isn't going to descend into a sky is best VM are rubbish and vice versa thread or a long tirade about the removal of Sky channels from VM last year..we have enough of those already.

Whatever your stance on the above Sky was,is and and will be a part of our changing history.You must give them and Murdoch their dues about that.

m419 · 11-02-2009, 10:45

All they did was launch a few channels. Thats also what United Artists did now called Virgin Media Television.

Whoops the BBC forgot to mention how Sky are killing the pub trade!!!

Dont get me wrong some of the Sky channels are good like Sky News and Sky 3, but the others seem to have to many repeats and some of the stuff has already been repeated on ITV2! FX is good well thats indirectly sky but still Murdochs!

Sky Movies is ok, but its far too expensive especially when they repeat the same movies for a while. Thats what they need to look into especially during a recession!

**Stuart** · 11-02-2009, 11:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by m419

All they did was launch a few channels. Thats also what United Artists did now called Virgin Media Television.

As with Maggy, I don't want this to turn into a Sky Vs. Vm thread. We have enough of those.

However, while I am not knocking Cable's contribution to pay TV, Sky had a far greater impact. Admittedly it's because they had (and have) access to near infinite resources thanks to being part of News Corp, and, as such, had (and have) access to free publicity from the other parts of News International, but the fact remains that they are probably the largest pioneer of pay TV. They have also driven the technology behind it forward in a way that no one else has.

Central · 16-02-2009, 22:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by m419

Wasnt Sky News,Sky Three,Sky Sports news removed from the line up, well they did on my freeview box!

They was going to but never did.

Still on my freeview tuner.